National Career Counseling association (NECA)

Susan Berman is the new President and Chief Executive Officer of Fresh Start Women’s Foundation and began her new duties on September 12, 2011. Susan graduated from ASU with a Bachelors degree in Psychology and graduated from the University of Phoenix with a Masters degree in Counseling. Susan pursued her college education while raising her three children as a single parent. She has over 20 years experience in social services programs, management, and program design and development. Susan is a member of the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the National Career Counseling association (NECA) and is a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC) through the American Counseling Association.

Up until her joining the Fresh Start family, Susan was the Director of Programs at Childhelp, a National non-profit that is into its 53rd year of operation. Her role was to make significant contributions to six varied and multi-faceted programs and create and implement significant staff development by increasing quality, effectiveness, and program outcomes across the board. One major program Susan had oversight and direct operational duties were the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline. Operating 24/7 with 36 qualified professional counselors, Susan’s responsibilities was to continually improve quality of service delivery and continually engage in marketing and media exposure on behalf of the hotline.

Prior to 2007, Susan ran the Workforce Development Program throughout Maricopa County for 10+ years operating a staff of over 70 professionals and providing job readiness, career development, and job placement services to citizens of the entire County. One of the significant contributions Susan brought to Workforce Development was the collaborative environment she helped create among the 16 Counties and the State that elevated all of the services and leveraged numerous resources to the benefit of each County’s citizens. Susan also wrote and published case management and case note curriculum that was adopted by Rutgers’s University, John J Heldrich Center on Workforce Development. As a result of the curriculum she was able to provide the training to over 300 professional staff throughout Arizona. In addition to this she wrote numerous grants for federal and local funds and was awarded over $12 million dollars in federal funds over a five year span.

Previously Susan operated a private counseling practice that focused primarily on women and familial issues. Susan’s focus is to assist individuals to learn to have a positive and nurturing relationship with self in order to affect parenting and other significant relationships. Her goal is to help her clients identify ways to cope and grow, and to find empowerment and confidence. She believes that we all have the right to become the very best we can – and that we often need a helping hand to get there.

Susan’s skills at creative program design and collaborative approaches have resulted in significant changes in the National Child Abuse Hotline in her tenure with Childhelp. The Hotline has made a significant move from a referral focus to a crisis intervention and counseling model utilizing its strong foundation of qualified counselors. The Hotline has taken on new and innovative collaborative approaches to addressing significant issues around the nation with Susan’s guidance and leadership.